


When Eadgyd Remained Bold

by dwarrowdams



Series: Eadgar Lives AU [1]
Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Battle, Gen, Trauma, and also Eadgar makes jokes despite being severely injured, in which Hild is the baddest bitch, which is a mood tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:08:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26332408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dwarrowdams/pseuds/dwarrowdams
Summary: What if Eadgar hadn't died in battle?  A re-imagining of that fateful day told from Eadgar's point of view.
Series: Eadgar Lives AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1913467
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	When Eadgyd Remained Bold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aeriamamaduck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeriamamaduck/gifts).



> Shoutout to my partner for telling me to write whatever kind of Eadgyd stuff made me feel better. This is what happened and I dig it.
> 
> I cried a lot at DnD last week because I can't handle Eadgyd being sad (even though she is literally Eadgyd the Sad), so naturally I have spent most of the time between then and now working on my Eadgar Lives AU. This series will chart parts of the campaign that would've been significantly different due to Eadgar's presence as well as the slice-of-life-esque stuff that's in the "Eadgyd, but not Sad" series.
> 
> Once again, I tried to be as non-gory as possible, but also Eadgyd still loses her arm and Eadgar gets his knees broken, so there is a certain level of graphic violence. However, there is also Hild being a bad bitch, so I think it's a pretty fair tradeoff.

Eadgar was beginning to think that rushing to Eadgyd’s aid without a clear plan hadn't been the best idea.

He’d narrowly missed an arrow to his shoulder and had sustained a small scratch to his side, but he knew that his luck wouldn’t last forever. It was only a matter of time before something more serious happened

Still, he wasn’t about to leave his sister to fight alone: not until the wave of orcs thinned out considerably.

“Fall back!” she cried. “Hild is coming—go back to the archers!”

She gestured to a figure with a greatsword and a helm adorned with horse hair: unmistakably Hild, their sister by marriage. She was still a ways off, though, and Eadgar didn’t want anything to happen to his sister in the moments between when he left and Hild arrived.

“I’ll leave when she’s here!” Eadgar replied. “Promise.”

Eadgyd seemed about to argue further, but before she could, a large Uruk shoved its way forward, its gaze fixed on Eadgar. He raised his shield, sizing the creature up to see if he might try to attack it, but it struck at his shield, splintering the center.

Eadgar danced back, pulling his shield arm towards him as he readied his sword. He managed to touch the creature a couple of times, but his blade couldn’t pierce its hide.

The Uruk grinned, raising its blade. Eadgar lifted his shield to his face, hoping that it could offer him some protection even in its broken state, but the blow never came.

Instead, the blade slammed into Eadgar’s knees with a sickening crack.

He cried out in pain as his legs crumpled beneath him, raising his shield in a hopeless defense against the Uruk’s final blow.

But it never came. What did come was an agonized scream from Eadgyd. Eadgar peeked out from beneath his shield and saw his sister standing before the Uruk, her eyes burning hot with a hatred he’d never seen before.

“Don’t you dare lay a hand on him!” she shouted as she swung at the Uruk, but in her fury, she left herself open to its attack.

Eadgyd screamed in pain as the Uruk’s blade bit deep into her arm, struggling to hold her axe one-handed before dropping it to the ground. The Uruk chuckled darkly, raising its blade to deal another blow as Eadgar watched helplessly.

Fortunately, Hild’s greatsword sliced cleanly through its neck before it could. She snarled at the remaining orcs, raising her sword to strike again. She slashed through them easily in the throes of her fury, and it was only a matter of time before those left standing retreated. 

She sheathed her sword, breathing heavily, before turning towards Eadgyd. She tried to help her up, but Eadgyd crumpled to the ground, whimpering in pain. Hild turned her gaze to Eadgar, looking between him and Eadgyd. “I can’t carry both of you together,” she said, her eyes filled with sorrow. “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

“Take her first,” he said. “I can manage, but she needs the healers right away.”

Hild nodded and lifted Eadgyd into her arms, draping the Beorning over her shoulder as she struggled towards the healers’ tent.

Eadgar knew that he couldn’t wait for her to return. She’d scared off a wave of orcs, but it was only a matter of time before more came, and he’d rather not be around when he did. He took a deep breath, steeling himself, before he began to crawl forward on his belly, dragging himself with his arms. It was slow and painful work, but at least he wouldn’t be an easy kill for some orc. He looked up to see how far he’d come and was distressed to realize that he hadn’t come very far at all.

He froze as he heard approaching footsteps, hoping that it wasn’t an orc.

“Eadgar?”

He didn’t need to look up to know that it was Hild.

“You’re not an orc,” he said, sighing with relief.

“Not yet,” she replied, her voice suddenly closer. “Come now—you’re not dragging yourself any further.”

Before Eadgar could protest, she lifted him into her arms, cradling him as though he were a babe.

“Is this how you carried Avina into your bedchambers on your wedding night?” he teased, hoping that speech would distract him from the pain in his legs.

Hild huffed. “I can’t believe it,” she said. “An Uruk broke your fucking legs, you tried to crawl to the healers’ tent, and you’re still making jokes?”

Eadgar laughed weakly. “Just...just trying to...to stay...oh Hild, you’ve gone all blurry,” he muttered. He blinked rapidly, hoping that his vision would stop fading at the edges, but it didn’t.

“Stay with me, brother,” Hild murmured. “I can’t lose you.”

Eadgar managed what he hoped was a smile. “Don’t worry, Hild,” he said, gritting his teeth against the pain. “I’m not going anywhere.”

**Author's Note:**

> And there you have it: my aroace ADHD dyspraxic son lives to fight another day! He does wind up with chronic pain and anxiety as a result of the battle, but the important thing is that he's alive.
> 
> (For anyone who's not read the second chapter of "When Eadgyd Became Sad," I explained there that Hild refers to Eadgar as her brother because she has no biological siblings so she thinks that making a distinction is pointless and also because "brother-in-law" just sounds awkward in this context.)
> 
> Also, a note about names: in this AU, Eadgyd keeps the moniker "the Bold" because although she is definitely still sad (I mean, she still loses an arm and gets PTSD and depression as a result of this), she still has her brother and doesn't feel the need to change her whole name because of it.
> 
> Please comment if you enjoyed this!
> 
> Tumblr: dwarrowdams  
> Twitter: @_tenderqueer


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